Panay power back to normal by Friday afternoon — ERC

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said it expects the power supply in Panay Island to return to normal by Friday afternoon following a massive outage that affected thousands of residents and crippled operations of government offices, businesses, and schools.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB on Friday, ERC chairperson and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta said that the affected power plants in Iloilo are now working again.

"Iyon pong mga planta na inaasahan sa Iloilo gumagana na po. So inaasahan po natin na sana po magtuloy-tuloy, sana po walang maging aberya. Hopefully this afternoon, mag-normalize na iyong situation at supply natin," she said.

(The power plants that are relied upon in Iloilo are working again. So we are expecting that hopefully this will continue and no problem will arise. Hopefully this afternoon, our situation and supply will be back to normal.)

"Hindi pa po siguro 100%, pero siguro papunta na pong 100%. Ibig sabihin, hindi na po magro-rotational kasi ngayon naka-rotation pa rin po tayo,” she added.

(It is not 100% but maybe it is getting there. Meaning, there will be no more rotational power interruptions.)

At noon on Jan. 2, Dimalanta said a plant of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) collapsed but the power supply was not affected.

After two hours, six other large units consecutively collapsed which caused the entire system to shut down, she added.

The ERC is still investigating the incident, Dimalanta said.

Investigating the cause

Authorities are looking into two possible causes of the collapse of the power plants: damage at the plant, and disturbance on the grid.

"Puwede pong maging dahilan ng pagbitaw ng planta, may nasira sa planta. In this case, obligasyon po iyong ng generator na kailangan mini-maintain niya iyong planta niya, sa generation company po iyon,” she said.

(One of the possible causes was something broke down at the plant. In this case, it was an obligation of the generator to maintain the plant, it was the generation company.)

"Kung meron siyang na-sense na may disturbance doon sa grid, may voltage at frequency issue, bibitaw po siya to protect itself. So ang ibig sabihin po noon, ang naging problema nandoon sa linya, so National Grid Corporation of the Philippines naman po ang nagme-maintain," she added.

(If the system sensed a disturbance on the grid, like a voltage and frequency issue, it would take measures to protect itself. So this would mean that the problem was on the line, which is being maintained by the NGCP.) — VDV, GMA Integrated News